GE Inks Deal for Vietnam Power Plant

US power giant GE has signed a $1bn agreement with Genco3 pertaining to the development of the Long Son gas-to-power project in Vietnam, the US embassy in Hanoi said on November 22 in a statement. 

The US firm will install the gas turbine technology and some other equipment, and will take an equity stake in the project, the embassy said. The agreement between GE and Genco3 was signed during president Donald Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien’s visit to Vietnam from November 20-22.

The Long Son project, located in Vung Tau province, is expected to generate electricity with a capacity of 3.6 GW. The project plan also includes the construction of a 3.5mn metric tons/year LNG terminal. Pacific Corporation, Power Engineering Consulting 2, TTC Group, and Mitsubishi Corporation, will also participate in the project.

Demand for LNG in Vietnam’s power sector is expected to reach 8.5mn metric tons/year by 2030, the country's industry and trade ministry said on September 28. The ministry expects demand for LNG in the power generation sector to reach 1.2mn mt/yr by 2025. At present, Vietnam does not import any LNG. In June this year, PetroVietnam Power, a subsidiary of state-run PetroVietnam, announced plans to build four new gas-based power plants.

There has been a spate of announcements in the last couple of months by US companies about their plan to invest in Vietnamese LNG and gas-to-power projects. Last month, ExxonMobil and Japanese joint venture Jera teamed up to establish a gas-to-power project in Hai Phong city. In the same month, AES Corporation and state-run Petrovietnam Gas signed an agreement to develop the Son My LNG terminal in Vietnam.

AES was granted approval by Vietnam’s government last year to develop a 2.2-GW combined cycle gas turbine power plant in the south-central Binh Thuan province.